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KS8000 settings for gaming at 4k/HDR

Boss Man

Member
I know this is an age old debate but with HDR should dynamic contrast be used? The description says it prevents excessive difference between light and dark so you would think it works against HDR.. but then again it's on medium by default by the manufacturer.

With warm 2, and colour space auto I still have to reduce the brightness (in game menus) a lot to get anything resembling an improvement.

Just about to start god of war and between setting the tv options and then the in Game options, it kind of makes you wish for the days of plug in and play lol.
I think the great dynamic contrast debate is and always will be stuck between, "It's objectively bad leave it off." and "I like the way it looks."
 
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Dibils2k

Member
for god of war i left ingame settings as default and then have these settings. i just cant understand people using dynamic contrast, it literally defeats the purpose of HDR

backlight 20
brightness 44
contrast 100
sharpness 5
color 55

smart led HIGH
dynamic contrast OFF
colour tone WARM 1
gamma 0
colour space AUTO
 

Pantz

Member
Curious to hear what others have for their God of War Brightness/Contrast settings on.

My TV settings: 100 backlight, 45 brightness, 100 contrast, smart led high, dynamic contrast off, warm2 (everything else off/default)

God of War (PS4 Pro): HDR on, Brightness 45, Contrast 45
 
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Hostile_18

Banned
After ALOT of playing around tonight;

Colour: Auto
Warm 2
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Backlight: 20
Brightness: 45
Colour: 53 (fairly bright room)
Sharpness 50 (my preference)

God of War (and all other games now default).

Edit: I'm 100% dynamic contrast off now. Having it on meant other settings needed changing and consequently in game menus needed changing. The above is perfect.
 
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Panther84

Member
After ALOT of playing around tonight;

Colour: Auto
Warm 2
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Backlight: 20
Brightness: 45
Colour: 53 (fairly bright room)
Sharpness 50 (my preference)

God of War (and all other games now default).

Edit: I'm 100% dynamic contrast off now. Having it on meant other settings needed changing and consequently in game menus needed changing. The above is perfect.
Sharpness at 50 is super high. Do you see a lot of artifacts? I know I do when I go above 20
 

DanEON

Member
My setting for GoW

Backlight: 20
Brightness: 45
Color: 50
Contrast: 100
Sharpness: 25
Color space: Auto
Warm 1
Dynamic Contrast: Off

GoW setting:
Brightness: 50
Contrast: 80

I just love how HDR looks with high contrast in game. Dark scenes with some bright spots just looks amazing (like fire and light holes in caves). For me this is HDR.
 

Gavin Stevens

Formerly 'o'dium'
After now going through a whopping SIX ks8000 65” units, all with bad screens (bad luck or worst luck, you tell me!), we tried with Samsung to get them to exchange it for a different model... who told us they would not. Even though it was less than 12 months old. They said they would give us... 10% of the cost back towards a new tv.

So the boys at curry’s pc world have stepped in.

They are going to pull a few strings, and take it back, but cover the cost of an upgrade to an LG C7 65”.

I can’t argue with that at all. I just hope my bad tv luck doesnt follow haha!
 

Panther84

Member
After now going through a whopping SIX ks8000 65” units, all with bad screens (bad luck or worst luck, you tell me!), we tried with Samsung to get them to exchange it for a different model... who told us they would not. Even though it was less than 12 months old. They said they would give us... 10% of the cost back towards a new tv.

So the boys at curry’s pc world have stepped in.

They are going to pull a few strings, and take it back, but cover the cost of an upgrade to an LG C7 65”.

I can’t argue with that at all. I just hope my bad tv luck doesnt follow haha!
Good luck with OLEDs
 

Gavin Stevens

Formerly 'o'dium'
Good luck with OLEDs

New LG TVs have a burn in feature that if you’ve used the tv for 4 hours, will turn on a refresh once the tv is off and refresh all the pixels for an hour or so. Also has a kidder feature to try and stop it, like the Xbox has.

Failing that, I’ve been given a 5 year burn in guarantee so that if I do get any that can’t be solved I can get a new panel and or tv.

So with common sense, I think I’ll be ok.
 

Dibils2k

Member
New LG TVs have a burn in feature that if you’ve used the tv for 4 hours, will turn on a refresh once the tv is off and refresh all the pixels for an hour or so. Also has a kidder feature to try and stop it, like the Xbox has.

Failing that, I’ve been given a 5 year burn in guarantee so that if I do get any that can’t be solved I can get a new panel and or tv.

So with common sense, I think I’ll be ok.
man you got a great exchange!! although i would still probably rather not go through what you went through with all those panel changes lol

enjoy pure blacks
 
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Hostile_18

Banned
Sharpness at 50 is super high. Do you see a lot of artifacts? I know I do when I go above 20

I notice it on the hair on Uncharted 4 only. Having the text look super sharp that every game/OS has is worth the trade off IMO. Certainly no less than 20. 0 just looks blurry (even though technically that's the native look).

Can't believe what a positive difference having dynamic contrast off has. I struggled to notice with HDR what the difference was before now it's night and day.
 
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I see more and more people talking about a better HDR performance with the new firmware (I saw someone talking about a 1220.7 and 1220.8 update?)
 

thaBootyologist

Neo Member
I see more and more people talking about a better HDR performance with the new firmware (I saw someone talking about a 1220.7 and 1220.8 update?)

Yes the HDR performance has definitely been improved. Picture and colors just pop even more now. Even while watching SDR content at night I find I need to turn down my backlight to 9. Before this 1220 update I had toggled between 11-12.
 
Yes the HDR performance has definitely been improved. Picture and colors just pop even more now. Even while watching SDR content at night I find I need to turn down my backlight to 9. Before this 1220 update I had toggled between 11-12.
Now that I tested it I can honestly say this is the case for me too. The PS4 menu alone was enough to make me lower the backlight! BF1 looks sooo much better in HDR now, holy shit.
 

thaBootyologist

Neo Member
Now that I tested it I can honestly say this is the case for me too. The PS4 menu alone was enough to make me lower the backlight! BF1 looks sooo much better in HDR now, holy shit.
I haven't played BF1 in a while! I remember the first time I played Fao Fortress. Just to show off HDR to my brother who really isn't big on it, I went to the outskirts of the map near the ocean and waited until the sun came out. He saw that and immediately got him a KS8000 the next week. LMAO
 

Boss Man

Member
I’m having a weird issue with HDR in the Amazon Prime app. It’s like the picture just pops in and out of HDR for a few seconds - colors will immediately start to look washed out and then back again. Anyone else experiencing this?
 

A.Romero

Member
I’m having a weird issue with HDR in the Amazon Prime app. It’s like the picture just pops in and out of HDR for a few seconds - colors will immediately start to look washed out and then back again. Anyone else experiencing this?

It's happening to me too. KS9000 with the latest update. It's probably the Amazon app.
 

shimceltic

Neo Member
for god of war i left ingame settings as default and then have these settings. i just cant understand people using dynamic contrast, it literally defeats the purpose of HDR

backlight 20
brightness 44
contrast 100
sharpness 5
color 55

smart led HIGH
dynamic contrast OFF
colour tone WARM 1
gamma 0
colour space AUTO
I've been a bit underwhelmed by GOW and decided to copy these settings. I hadn't realised since the tv firmware update it had seriously changed all my settings around. Now I've put them back similar to this and I've seen loads of different colours and pop that the default game mode lacked
 
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dibella360

Banned
Is anyone having an issue playing 4K MKV's from a USB stick? I was able to run them flawlessly before ... but now they are a choppy mess.
 

Panther84

Member
Does adjusting hdr settings drive anyone else crazy here? When I'm happy with how one game looks the next game looks either too dull or over saturated. Any suggestions? At the moment I have this for hdr...

Backlight 20
Brightness 45
Contrast 100
Color 50
Smart led high
Dynamic contrast high
Gamma -3
Auto colour space
 

nowhat

Member
Does adjusting hdr settings drive anyone else crazy here? When I'm happy with how one game looks the next game looks either too dull or over saturated. Any suggestions? At the moment I have this for hdr...

Backlight 20
Brightness 45
Contrast 100
Color 50
Smart led high
Dynamic contrast high
Gamma -3
Auto colour space
You really shouldn't be using dynamic contrast with HDR. Arguably one shouldn't use it at all, but if you do in SDR, then "low" is what you're after.

But HDR is quite a new technology and especially implementations vary a lot in quality. If you find some game looking dull, but others not, it may just be the game(s).
 
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Panther84

Member
You really shouldn't be using dynamic contrast with HDR. Arguably one shouldn't use it at all, but if you do in SDR, then "low" is what you're after.
I've tried to not use dynamic contrast but the picture just isn't vibrant. I don't use DC in sdr only hdr. I know it crushes detail but the image appears brighter with DC.
 

nowhat

Member
I've tried to not use dynamic contrast but the picture just isn't vibrant. I don't use DC in sdr only hdr. I know it crushes detail but the image appears brighter with DC.
Have you considered changing your viewing conditions if possible? Having a darker room? With DC you can get the average brightness higher, sure, but you're losing detail as you said. And especially since KS8000 is edge-lit, brighter image means less dark blacks too.
 

Panther84

Member
Have you considered changing your viewing conditions if possible? Having a darker room? With DC you can get the average brightness higher, sure, but you're losing detail as you said. And especially since KS8000 is edge-lit, brighter image means less dark blacks too.
Possibly...
 

Dibils2k

Member
i would say let your eyes get used to no DC in hdr, cause once it does, turning on DC makes everything look so washed out

obviously without DC you should put gamma back to 0
 
I’ve been dipping in and out in this thread and for the last month I’ve been using these HDR settings and to me they are perfect. as with all settings posted YMMV. But if anyone wants to try them out, let me know how you get on.

GAME MODE
Backlight 20
Brightness 37
Contrast 85
Color 53
Smart led high
Dynamic contrast high
Gamma 0
Tone Warm 1
Auto colour space
 

Hostile_18

Banned
I’ve been dipping in and out in this thread and for the last month I’ve been using these HDR settings and to me they are perfect. as with all settings posted YMMV. But if anyone wants to try them out, let me know how you get on.

GAME MODE
Backlight 20
Brightness 37
Contrast 85
Color 53
Smart led high
Dynamic contrast high
Gamma 0
Tone Warm 1
Auto colour space

Dynamic contrast of any kind works against HDR. Then you have to alter other settings to try and compensate. The best thing I ever did was turn it off :). Your not going to get any where near the intended image.
 
Dynamic contrast of any kind works against HDR. Then you have to alter other settings to try and compensate. The best thing I ever did was turn it off :). Your not going to get any where near the intended image.

I used dynamic contrast off for the first year I got the TV and was never satisfied. The dull, grey, washed out image had me tweaking everything on a per game basis. It was impossible.

I guarantee if you try Zoo Tycoon or Sea of Thieves with DC off, it’s borderline unplayable. I drop the contrast with DC on and it fixes all my issues with the overblown image, while also fixing my issues with the “grey filter”. This spans over every game and UHD I’ve tried on PS4 Pro and XBOX One X.

It’s all down to personal preference in the end. No one is right or wrong, but for me, if DC off is considered the “real” way to view HDR, I’d rather stick with SDR.
 
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Hostile_18

Banned
I used dynamic contrast off for the first year I got the TV and was never satisfied. The dull, grey, washed out image had me tweaking everything on a per game basis. It was impossible.

I guarantee if you try Zoo Tycoon or Sea of Thieves with DC off, it’s borderline unplayable. I drop the contrast with DC on and it fixes all my issues with the overblown image, while also fixing my issues with the “grey filter”. This spans over every game and UHD I’ve tried on PS4 Pro and XBOX One X.

It’s all down to personal preference in the end. No one is right or wrong, but for me, if DC off is considered the “real” way to view HDR, I’d rather stick with SDR.

Yeah at the end of the day it's what ever looks best to you if your not after 100% accuracy (or close to it).

There does sound to be something else going on though as with the setting I have I never get a dull washed out picture.. could it be a black level issue (I have mine on low/limited as I watch media on my console as well).

I don't have an X Box but on my PS4 Pro every game I've thrown at it looks amazing. Obviously these games are calibrated for warm 2 with no dynamic contract or post processing, so the fact that Sea of Thieves (and other's) looked terrible when it should be the preferred look as intended by the developers makes me think something else maybe going on causing this problem?
 

A.Romero

Member
I used dynamic contrast off for the first year I got the TV and was never satisfied. The dull, grey, washed out image had me tweaking everything on a per game basis. It was impossible.

I guarantee if you try Zoo Tycoon or Sea of Thieves with DC off, it’s borderline unplayable. I drop the contrast with DC on and it fixes all my issues with the overblown image, while also fixing my issues with the “grey filter”. This spans over every game and UHD I’ve tried on PS4 Pro and XBOX One X.

It’s all down to personal preference in the end. No one is right or wrong, but for me, if DC off is considered the “real” way to view HDR, I’d rather stick with SDR.

I was having a similar issue until for some reason (don't remember why) I changed the HDMI black levels (or something like that) setting. Try it.
 
Yeah at the end of the day it's what ever looks best to you if your not after 100% accuracy (or close to it).

There does sound to be something else going on though as with the setting I have I never get a dull washed out picture.. could it be a black level issue (I have mine on low/limited as I watch media on my console as well).

I don't have an X Box but on my PS4 Pro every game I've thrown at it looks amazing. Obviously these games are calibrated for warm 2 with no dynamic contract or post processing, so the fact that Sea of Thieves (and other's) looked terrible when it should be the preferred look as intended by the developers makes me think something else maybe going on causing this problem?

It is not a black level issue on my end.

Try a google search for “ks8000 HDR grey” to see it’s quite common. Accuracy is one thing, but the TV isn’t the best for HDR due to its edge lights and contrast ratio. HDR requires the backlight be ramped up full, the blooming, and flashing causes the contrast to be washed out. HDR is harmed/broken because of the edge lit panel. This is what my eyes are “sensitive” to. How I wish I could just ignore it lol.

DC works different in HDR than SDR and helps pick up the display where it falls short, this has been documented earlier in the thread by auto correcting the washed out contrast issues due to the edge light/blooming etc. I love my blacks and my brights to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, that’s what HDR is. Wide Colour Gamut is an entirely different thing, so it’s important people not get confused between the two when trying to discuss HDR.

I’m a firm believer that this set needs DC on to be valued as any sort of improvement over SDR (you could get a professional ISF calibration to get the most accurate colours for the WCG, but that won’t help the HDR contrast problems with the set).

Like I said though, each to their own. I’ve found my best settings since launch, and maybe they will help others. :)
 
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Hostile_18

Banned
I think I must have been lucky with my set as I honestly feel like my blacks are black, with no grey filter. Everything I've put on HDR wise has been perfect since taking off dynamic contrast. Not that I've been lucky overall... it's my third screen so it's been a long journey lol.

However Ill give your settings a go on my tv just to see the results :). Out of curiosity do you have dynamic contrast on with none HDR content?
 
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Dibils2k

Member
What should I have my tv and Xbox set to regarding black level. Currently tv is low and Xbox is pc rgb

On Xbox:

Color depth : 8-bit (will auto switch to 10-bit for HDR, so make this 8-bit so your SDR doesnt need to do processing to bring it back to 8-bit)
Color space : Standard

another thing, make sure to disable "Allow YCC 4:2:2"

On TV:
black level should be Low

My HDR settings is
Backlight 20
Brightness 44
Contrast 100
Sharpness 5
Color 55
Smart LED high
Dynamic Contrast Off
Warm 1
Gamma 0
Colour Space: Auto.

My SDR settings is
Backlight 13
Brightness 44
Contrast 100
Sharpness 0
Color 55
Smart LED off (you might want this on Low as your TV will have forced local dimming making the screen too dim in dark scenes, i disabled it from service menu)
Dynamic Contrast Off
Warm 1
Gamma 0
Colour Space: Native.
 
I think I must have been lucky with my set as I honestly feel like my blacks are black, with no grey filter. Everything I've put on HDR wise has been perfect since taking off dynamic contrast. Not that I've been lucky overall... it's my third screen so it's been a long journey lol.

However Ill give your settings a go on my tv just to see the results :). Out of curiosity do you have dynamic contrast on with none HDR content?

I imagine panels do have variances. I’m on the launch panel, there is no leaks and unform (as much as an edge lit panel can be) so never bothered changing it.

My settings for SDR are basically the same ones we all default to. More or less rtings settings. I don’t use D.C. on SDR.

UHDs are some of the best to test for HDR due to the black bars at the top and bottom and they generally have dark scenes. The Revenant is a great test disc. So much bright highlights you can see where the darks get bleached by the bloom. :(
 

Hostile_18

Banned
I imagine panels do have variances. I’m on the launch panel, there is no leaks and unform (as much as an edge lit panel can be) so never bothered changing it.

My settings for SDR are basically the same ones we all default to. More or less rtings settings. I don’t use D.C. on SDR.

UHDs are some of the best to test for HDR due to the black bars at the top and bottom and they generally have dark scenes. The Revenant is a great test disc. So much bright highlights you can see where the darks get bleached by the bloom. :(

I did try your settings on the Witcher 3 on the Pro this morning and the image was very good. Felt very punchy, and the blacks did appear blacker. I take it in not losing much detail though in having darker blacks?

I take it with the standard settings your using Warm 1 as well? I do like my settings where possible to be consistent across the board, dont really like altering things on a per game basis.

I'll have more a play around with the settings tonight... as in God of War the cycle never ends 😂.
 

Panther84

Member
On Xbox:

Color depth : 8-bit (will auto switch to 10-bit for HDR, so make this 8-bit so your SDR doesnt need to do processing to bring it back to 8-bit)
Color space : Standard

another thing, make sure to disable "Allow YCC 4:2:2"

On TV:
black level should be Low

My HDR settings is
Backlight 20
Brightness 44
Contrast 100
Sharpness 5
Color 55
Smart LED high
Dynamic Contrast Off
Warm 1
Gamma 0
Colour Space: Auto.

My SDR settings is
Backlight 13
Brightness 44
Contrast 100
Sharpness 0
Color 55
Smart LED off (you might want this on Low as your TV will have forced local dimming making the screen too dim in dark scenes, i disabled it from service menu)
Dynamic Contrast Off
Warm 1
Gamma 0
Colour Space: Native.
Native color space in sdr over saturates colors like crazy on my set.
 
I did try your settings on the Witcher 3 on the Pro this morning and the image was very good. Felt very punchy, and the blacks did appear blacker. I take it in not losing much detail though in having darker blacks?

I take it with the standard settings your using Warm 1 as well? I do like my settings where possible to be consistent across the board, dont really like altering things on a per game basis.

I'll have more a play around with the settings tonight... as in God of War the cycle never ends 😂.

Yeah I use warm 1 for everything except movies. The black crush is minimal if at all because the contrast has been dropped, but yeah the blacks are what has me running these settings, I can’t deal with the blooming. Hopefully Samsung’s new tech is good, I’m not a fan of the low nits on an OLED atm.
 

Hostile_18

Banned
Yeah I use warm 1 for everything except movies. The black crush is minimal if at all because the contrast has been dropped, but yeah the blacks are what has me running these settings, I can’t deal with the blooming. Hopefully Samsung’s new tech is good, I’m not a fan of the low nits on an OLED atm.

Yeah OLED is the future, when the tech is there. Going to experiment with your settings on other games now, see how they look 😁.
 
Yeah OLED is the future, when the tech is there. Going to experiment with your settings on other games now, see how they look 😁.

Let me know if you see any obvious crush. I wouldn’t mind comparing more, I’ve dialled in as far as I could with the games I tested but there may be more wiggle room. I accept a certain amount of crush (minimal) as it’s going to be a trade off as there is no TV that is perfect yet. Once I got those deep blacks and great hilights I just couldn’t go back.
 

nowhat

Member
Yeah OLED is the future, when the tech is there
Or it may be MicroLED. Or (I've been revisiting Monty Python as it is now available in Netflix) something completely different. As of today, OLED is the champ, and still relatively expensive. But a couple of years more - who knows. Emissive displays are the future for sure, can't beat those infinite contrast levels. But what the eventual technology will be that replaces current LED-LCDs remains to be seen.
 
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